Dear friend,
We finally got some real snow!
Elias is enjoying his time serving as bishop. In addition to everything else, he diligently takes the youth to the temple every other month. I don't know how he does everything he does.
Joy is delightful. She's smart and hard-working, athletic and funny. She is easily motivated by sugar and shows. She has to work hard for her grades, but she is diligent and committed. Since she was in Kindergarten, each of her teachers have mentioned that Joy is friends with everyone but at the first sign of friend drama, she will go and play with another group. (Apparently this has served her very well since her cohort is known to have an excess of drama at recess.) She is independent and will often roam the neighborhood looking for someone to play with. She has an eye for fashion and lays out her outfit every night. He favorite colors to wear are black, light blue and light pink and she wears her signature ponytail every school day. She has really enjoyed the primary activities. She is so athletic but hasn't really enjoyed soccer or swimming. She loved volleyball but unfortunately they had to cancel the class half way through the season. She really wants to try lacrosse and she's loving her sewing class. She is a great big sister to Rose. She balances life between the big kids and Rose so well. She has played the violin this year in addition to piano.
I was in charge of Kindness Week at Hindley this year. I went in and taught all the grades at lunch about kindness and we did various activities through the week.
I also enjoyed a lovely call with my sisters after Hannah welcomed Baby Mandy into the world!
Elias and I took all the kids to the bank and opened individual bank accounts for each of them. We enjoyed the aquarium after that and a few good rounds of the flour game.
Boyd is a great kid. He's hard on himself and wants to do well. He's diligent and dedicated to success. To give you an example, he really doesn't like our piano teacher, Declan. Declan is strict, void of humor and slow to compliment. One time I heard him really get after Boyd for not giving him a proper hello when his lesson started. He's pretty no-nonsense. When Boyd was complaining about piano lessons, I offered that I would try to find a new teacher, and responded. "Well, I'd rather dislike him and continue learning than have someone I like who I don't learn anything from."
He is enjoying his tennis and paddle classes. He has fallen in love with Rhone clothing and loved the tour of the office headquarters they did for a YM activity. He has a good group of friends at school but is still finding his vibe with the Young Men at church. He still has exceptional origami skills and will surprise us with something amazing every few weeks. He doesn't enjoy going to school and often dreads the week ahead on Sunday nights, but he loves doing well on school projects. He will often go above and beyond on assignments and likes learning new programs. He has especially enjoyed his music education class this year.
Smith absolutely loves skiing. While the rest of the family enjoys it, Smith wants to squeeze in as much as possible and he is extremely daring going down each run. He continues to love being outdoors. He will often go explore in Baker woods and come home with an idea to create something. He's friendly to everyone but his closest friends aren't at school. He really enjoys spending time with Grayson Broadbent from church even though he is a few years younger and Smith loves FaceTiming with his cousin Peter. He doesn't have any close friends at school. He and Boyd eat at the same lunch table but Smith is good acquaintances with everyone. He has loved the "Lord of the Rings" series and is now reading "The Hobbit". He is growing like a weed. He wears size 11 shoes and started limping a few months ago. When I took him in, we discovered it was due to his nearly nonexistent arches. Since we put arch supports in all his shoes, he has been doing wonderfully. Unfortunately he has suffered from a nagging cough (for nearly all his life), we are trying a new inhaler for the next six months to see if it helps.
This year we switched things up for February break and went skiing up at Gore Mountain in upstate New York. It was freezing but we had a fabulous time and look forward to doing the same next year.
Summer is growing up to be a beautiful young woman inside and out. She continues to love reading. She goes through multiple books a week and still takes our Friday trips to the library very seriously. She loves having her own room. It is her sanctuary. She loves crafting, reading, playing her guitar and listening to music in her own little world. She has had art everyday this quarter in seventh grade and couldn't be happier. She really is a gifted artist. She has done a beautiful job serving as the president of her Young Women's class. Seventh grade has been so much better than sixth grade for Summer. She has found a good group of friends to have lunch with and has enjoyed helping with hair, makeup, and props for the school plays. She really loves spending time with girls from church, especially Phaedra and Maren. Smith gets along well with Phaedra's younger brother so the four of them will often hang out together. She continues to work hard on the swim team.
Our little Rose turned seven this month. I can't believe my baby is seven! It breaks my heart. I was really weepy about it all week.
We were at our friend's Jennifer's farm.
Rose: This place kind of smells like you.
Jennifer: Oh, yeah, what does that smell like?
Rose (sniffs): Old lady and lipstick.
Jennifer: That's fitting.
Rose: Is there a bath-tism today after church?
Me: No, but there is a baptism. It's pronounced, "bap-tism"
Rose: No, it's "bath-tism"
Me: Why do you think that?
Rose: You know, because it's in a big bath...they are having a tism...in the bath.
We try not to sit in the first few rows at church during sacrament meeting. Partly because when we do, I for some reason think that Elias can assist me somehow with the kids, and that's just not true. But the main reason we try to sit further back is so that Rose doesn't try to have a personal conversation with the speaker at the podium.
One week we arrived late so we had to sit in the front row. The primary sang a hymn and then the Stake President got up and said, "Thank you primary children! Don't you just love getting to sing songs each week?" Rose looked right at him, raised her voice loud and responded, "No! You just make us do it every week." He's a very polished speaker, and still, it took him a few seconds to recover from her comment.
Smith and Boyd both gave their first sacrament talk this month. They were both amazing! The speaker after Smith went up to the podium and started off by saying, "Wow! Isn't Smith the best!?" Rose loudly responded, "No. He's not."
Another time, I was grateful we were sitting a few rows back when the speaker said, "Our Savior comes in and said, 'I've got you. I'm your older brother and I can fix this.'" To which Rose loudly responded, "Brothers don't fix things! Dad does!"
Our neighbor was over for dinner one evening and she was expressing how she doesn't like celebrating her birthday, to which Rose responded, "Is it because you're going to die soon?" Her siblings were mortified and started yelling at her so she said, "What!? Look at her! She's going to die soon."
There really is no malice to her words so she genuinely doesn't understand why everyone gets so upset. When we are at Jennifer's farm, Rose asked what a picture was and Jennifer responded, "It's a chicken! Do you like it?" Rose cringed and said "No". Later, Rose said, "This place is so creepy. Why do you like living in a creepy place?" She said it in such a nice tone; she's just genuinely curious. Jennifer loves her for it, but unfortunately siblings and peers aren't always so understanding.
She still insists that she never wants to get married because she says she never wants to have to have a baby inside her.
Love you all,
Brittany et al.
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